Wednesday, June 26, 2013

After a hiatus in exercise nearly as long as the pause in posting to this blog, I got back on track (literally) at the Student Rec Center at WSU today. They're having a free week for administrative/professional staff (me), and Peg offered to give me a ride out and back, and it was raining quite convincingly, so I decided to try it, despite my misogymny (hmmmph).

Actually, it was pretty pleasant. The track is shared by runners (outside lanes) and walkers (inside lanes), and the direction of travel is switched every day. Underfoot is very even, so it is possible to concentrate of mechanics. The climate control is very comfortable, and there's lots of daylight, even on a cloudy day.

A mitigating factor is that it is summer, which means many fewer people generally and many fewer college-age people in particular. I seem to remember that the only other time I was at SRC, it seemed to be a sea of pheromones. In any case, I enjoyed the overbuiltness of it during the slack season.

I must admit to finding all those people sweating and straining against the springs and weights, and running on treadmills, a trifle disconcerting. I spend much of my life doing things I have to do, and being a spectator to this artificial work/non-work was uncomfortable. On the other hand, many of the people are athletes, for whom these "workouts" are preparation for intrinsically-rewarding activity -- as playing scales is preparation for music (not that I ever did that regularly!).

So maybe the Rec Center is not so bad (at least, in the slack season) -- but at $30 a month, rain or shine, I'm still somewhat skeptical.

Friday, June 14, 2013

The chiropractor was helpful wen I visited. Among other things, he repositioned the proximal end of the humerus (upper end of the upper arm bone) slightly in its socket, which helped with arm mobility. He also did various energy manipulations, which helped my neck (a collateral-damage victim of the shoulder injury). At the end of the session, he said, "Give it 48 hours and call to let ke know how it's going". Then he laughed and said "My guess is, you'll forget to call [because the problem will be gone and won't b reminding you]".

That seems unlikely. Though I'm doing better at dodging those activities that seem to irritate my shoulder, it's hard to totally eliminate them, either because of practical concers (stick-shifting my car), or just habit (levering myself out of my office chair on my elbow, which I have done a hundred times every day before my injury, and only twice today, but that's twice too many).

Thursday, June 13, 2013

While in Chicago for my 50th high school reunion, I was taking my exercise walk at a brisk pace. The weather was smiling and I was happy -- too happy to watch my step. Next I knew, I had tripped on a cracked and shifted piece of pavement and landed on my knee (skinned) and shoulder (very sore).

After a long phone "exam" by the insurance company's "consulting nurse", she determined that I had not broken anything, dislocated anything, or torn the rotator cuff. "Just a bad bruise", she opined. Ice it (20 minutes on, 20 minutes off) for 48 hours, then (optionally) apply heat if desired. Use Tylenol for pain.

It did get less sore and more mobile over the next four days, but then, late at night, I was walking down stairs, very tired, when I must have stepped hard enough to jolt my shoulder. Ow! I think it was a small re-injury. Since, the progress in healing has slowed or stopped.

I am going to see the chiropractor Dr. Kevin Smith today. I am hoping he can help this situation resolve as he did with my back injury at the end of February.

Monday, June 3, 2013

... Friday in 33:36 (another personal best), today in 36:30 (obviously not pushing so hard, but better than the 39:xx I did the first time). That Friday time is a rate of just about 14 minutes per mile.